The high cost of a data breach

SEATTLE, Wash. -- A data breach is not only embarrassing, the financial damage to a company that’s hacked can be massive – millions of dollars. And that cost keeps going up every year.

The losses resulting from a data breach spiked by more than 6 percent in the past year and now costs the average compromised company almost $4 million, according to a new study by the Ponemon Institute.

Aside from expensive technical investigations and regulatory filings, a breach also includes hidden costs such as lost business, negative impact on reputation, and employee time spent on recovery.

This year’s study also calculated the costs of a mega breach. It found that a breach of 50 million records resulted in an estimated cost of $350 million.